Quilting for pleasure

Saturday, January 31, 2015

I am working on a quilt for an order. Decided to break out my lovely little Singer Model 99K which I lovingly call "Maggie". She was made in Clydebank, Scotland in December 1923. She purrs like a kitten and I love sewing on her. I do love my vintage machines.

Monday, January 19, 2015

This is my first attempt at making a fidget quilt. I was given a link to what fidget quilts are by a friend. Well, you know that I had to give it a try.

First thing was to find out what Pam found of interest. Luckily, I was able to use some orphan blocks from my "Dublin" quilt. Which worked out great as she loves anything to do with Ireland.

The quilt ended up being approximately 34" x 45". A little larger than some I found on the Internet, but I think it will be just fine.

The finished quilt.

Decided to use a couple of the family photographs that Lucy had on her Facebook page.

(Hope she doesn't mind!)

Put some of the Jacob's Ladder blocks to use. I had made a quilt which I called "Dublin" so these orphan blocks came in quite handy.

Decided to frame the photos with polka dots. A girl must have a little black & polka dot somewhere in her quilt!

Added a top strip to the Jacob Ladder blocks. Included the polka dot fabric again.

Pam likes her cat. Made a faux chenille block with a leather applique. Kitty is wearing her bell too.

Beads spell out Ireland,

Heart shamrock with 3D stem,

Then a 3D flower with button center

Put them together into a row.

Laid out the center components to see how I wanted them to go.

Framed one of the photos & left it as a stand alone embellishment. Love the bright corner buttons.

and on the back of the photo is another leather cat applique with Velcro to attach it to the quilt.

Beads on the black suede strips spell out the names of the sisters & Family. The beads can be moved up and down the strips.

The stand alone photo comes off to reveal the cat & can be hugged, used as a cuddle piece, or just pet the cat.

When designing the lap quilt I had in mind a little story about a leprechaun named Fidget MaGee. Fidget lives in the magical forest of Nodbrier. He loves to help everyone he meets. He is small of stature but big in heart.

I hope that Pam will enjoy this little fidget quilt. It was alot of fun designing it and making it. It was fun to come up with embellishments that could be fiddled with. I turned the cat applique around so that one of them is soft leather & the other one is the reverse side which is more textured.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

This scrappy quilt was actually started last year but finished today. I sorted some fabric scraps into two 1 gallon Ziploc plastic bags - one for light & one for dark. I didn't care what the colors were just that there was a noticeable degree of difference in the shades of the fabric. Just so you know, this quilt measures approximately 78" x 92" and only used approximately 1/3 of each of the bags of scraps. I probably have enough scraps left in the bags & other containers to make several more scrappy quilts.

The pattern was from Bonnie Hunter's (of Quiltville.blogspot.com) book Scraps & Shirttails. The quilt she made was called Virginia Bound. I really relate to Bonnie's style of scrappy quilts.

My version of the quilt pattern

Leftover block had to become the label.

Backing is soft flannel in a bright blue color

Mater is peaking out of this strip!

Chef Froggy even got a strip in.

Even used some pirate fabric. Booty Way!

Oh yeah, the doggy fabric is next to it.

Lion from some jungle fabric. Cute little face.

ATV fabric made it too.

Just a few of the fun fabrics that I used. Bonnie Hunter has a saying "If the fabric is still ugly, you didn't cut it small enough."

Quilted in a free motion curls & hooks pattern. Just a fun over all pattern.